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School cafeteria food vs. prison food

I cannot believe that the make-up of school lunches has not changed in 20 years (or more). Children and teens are learning poor nutrition habits, and the worst part of the issue is that it’s remarkably class-based. In many families, if parents are unhappy with the nutritional value of school lunches, they’ll send bag lunches with their children. That’s fine as a temporary solution, but what about the students who receive free or reduced lunches? If their families are struggling to make ends meet, they should not have to take on the financial burden of preparing nutritious lunches for their children, a responsibility that has always fallen with the National School Lunch Program. But how do we begin taking on this issue?

Hopefully you haven’t gotten the chance to taste jailhouse cuisine, but if you’re a product of the American school system, you probably have childhood memories of standing in line for grey mashed potatoes, half-thawed mystery meat, and slimy canned peaches. How do the trays measure up?